Tepui

Tepuis are caused by erosion, scattered, up to almost 3000 meters high mesas in the west of the highlands of Guiana on the northern edge of the Amazon basin in the countries of Venezuela, Guyana and Brazil.

The tepuis are usually made of sandstone and have some steep rugged gorges and columns, the plateau is often accessible only from the air.

Formation of mesas

The term for the tepui mesas is the language Pemón removed and is translated by many authors as, home of the gods '. They are remnants of a powerful, quartzitic sandstone plateau which once covered the granite veterans between the northern boundary of the Amazonian lowlands and the Orinoco, between the Atlantic coast and the Rio Negro. The plateau has been eroded in the course of the earth by erosion. The Tepui are left standing island mountains.

In the Gran Sabana in southeastern Venezuela, near the border with Guyana and Brazil, are now found 115 such mesas. The steep-sided mountains rising up to 1000 meters above the rainforest. The surfaces of the mountains have different textures. Dense impenetrable forests alternate on the plateaus of the mountains with jagged, ragged rocks from a wide variety of species. The erosion and weathering has created over millions of years, bizarre rock formations and mazes. This process is called also Tavernierung. In the tepuis are beyond spectacular cave systems such as the Muchimuk cave system in Churi - tepui, the Cueva Ojos de Cristal originated in Roraima Tepui or the caves of the bay Sarisariñama - tepui.

Flora and Fauna

The plateau of the tepuis is completely isolated from the rain forest. This is due on the one hand by its height and the resulting climatic differences from the rainforest and on the other by their insurmountable cliffs. These existing over millions of isolation led to endemic flora and fauna. On the surfaces has a temperate, cool climate with frequent thunderstorms, at the foot of the mountains and tropical warm and humid climate. In isolation, the evolution has produced on the plateau a very unique animal and plant world, cut off from the rest of the world by massive rock walls. Many of the plants and animals of the tepuis are unique and found nowhere else in the world. The nutrient-poor soils of mesas led to a rich variety of carnivorous plants, their rugged weathered stone flooring keep in thundershower no humus layer.

The Table Mountains - also known as islands above the rainforest - in fact offer researchers still a challenge, they nevertheless have a large portfolio of still unknown species. Some tepuis are almost wrapped throughout the year in dense clouds. Its surface has been able to be photographed only with radar images of helicopters. The surfaces of some tepuis has never entered a human.

Occurrence

A large number of mesas is located in the Canaima National Park in Venezuela. This was included by UNESCO in the list of world cultural and natural heritage of mankind.

In total there are 115 tepuis, including

  • Acopan - Tepui: The Acopan - tepui is a 2112 meter high Table Mountain in Bolivar / Venezuela with a 700 meters high, overhanging north pillar.
  • To Aparaman group include: Aparaman - Tepui, Murosipan - Tepui, Tereke - Yuren - tepui and Kamarkaiwaran - tepui.
  • Autana - Tepui: It towers above the jungle up to 1300 meters. Within this Tepuis up to 400 meters deep ravines, which are called Simas. It is believed that these holes were once huge caves, whose roof collapsed sometime.
  • Auyán - Tepui: The most famous Table Mountain has an area of 700 km ². From its plateau falls the highest waterfall in the world - Angel Falls.
  • Kukenam - Tepui: The Kukenam - Tepui applies the natives as a sacred mountain. He may no longer be climbed since 1997, especially since the rise and the plateau are considered particularly accident prone.
  • Neblina Tepui: also called Pico da Neblina is the highest table mountain with nearly 3000 m.
  • Ptari - Tepui: The rock wall of Ptari - tepui is so isolated that, a particularly high number of endemic plant and animal species presumed to him.
  • Roraima Tepui: Reports of the famous South American explorer Robert Schomburgk inspired the English country doctor Arthur Conan Doyle 's novel The Lost World of the discovery of a living prehistoric world full of dinosaurs and prehistoric plants.
  • Sarisariñama - Tepui: With 2,300 m one of the highest tepuis, far remote and primarily known for two huge, circular holes in the plateau.
Guiana Shield Amazon River History of the Earth Monadnock Tropical rainforest Auyán-tepui The Lost World (Conan Doyle novel) Uwe George
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